Exploring the Spillover Effects of Internally Displaced Settlements on the Wellbeing of Children of the Locales

This research examines the effect of internally displaced persons (IDPs) resettlement on the anthropometric outcomes of the host community's children in Nigeria. Our identification strategy characterizes affected children based on distance heterogeneities between the household and the closest IDP camp, as well as the child's birth year. We find that children residing within a 50-kilometer radius of the settlement with birth years after the IDP settlement in their community are less likely to be underweight, stunted, or wasted. Importantly, we contend that these findings arise because mothers benefited from changes in agricultural food prices, which led to increased agricultural productivity. Furthermore, the settlement resulted in a rise in donor-related activities in their community, namely immunization campaigns. In our data, we explore these mechanisms, demonstrating a significant likelihood of mothers participating in agricultural labor versus services or other professional employment and a significant increase in vaccination intake for affected children.